The stud begun with a first group of mares that Mrs. Mariangeles Bravo and her husband, D. Angel Delclaux bought from Mrs. Concha Ybarra and from Mr. Miguel Osuna. These mares were Acerola (Bahran & Abisina II x Malvito); Acacia (Corinto & Yuca x Fabuloso); La Jarda (Garbo & Venezuela II x Congo) and Karilla (Figuroso & Arilla x Malvito)
Soon after, they acquired the young stallion Zorba (Uzacur & Egipcia x Malvito) from Mr. Diego Mendez Moreno. He just came from winning 1st prize as a 3-year old at the National Spanish Championship in 1974 and, to this date, his head still is the logo of the Spanish Arabian Breeders Association (AECCA).
Right from the beginning Manás de la Hoz characterised itself by breaking and riding all its stallions and mares and participating in the Spanish National Championships on an early riding class. In addition, they also did well on the more traditional classes as Salesa (Ataturk & Acerola x Bahran), born at Manás de la Hoz, won its young filly class in Ascot in 1982.
Our goal has always been that breeding and selection should aim to emphasise our horses’ natural disposition and sport capabilities over the fashionable trends imposed by morphological showing. However, that does not mean that we have not pursued working on the features and bloodlines that so well distinguishes the Arabian Horse in general and the Pure Spanish Arabian Horse in particular.
With these priorities in mind we set to look for a stallion, in addition to Zorba, that would bring to our breeding the essence of the Pure Spanish Arabian Horse. So we found Zángano (Congo & Imelina x Gandhy), a horse that carried the bloodlines of its most illustrious ancestors in the Spanish Arabian Stud-book. At the time he was the last living son of Congo. He was a powerful horse, with height and strength but, above all, with great presence and expression not only on his movements but also on his head and his eyes. He was originally owned by the Military Stud (Yeguada Militar) and he served at Manas de la Hoz for many years leaving with us enormous satisfactions and a definitive marking on his many offspring.
Another stallion who contributed a great dose of Pure Spanish Arabian blood was Ataturk (Galero & Acacia x Corinto), bred at Manas de la Hoz and sire to many important mares such as Salesa, Adal–Comedia (Ataturk & Adal-Vitamina x Quirinal) or Adal–Karina (Ataturk & Adal-Zalema x Zángano).
In our quest for sport performance, we acquired Maahir (Crusader & Mazourca x Maleik El Kheil), a horse bred in the UK who had won at several flat races in racetracks across Europe. From that day onwards we begun to participate in several cross-country events and flat races in Spain with mares such as Adal Ytana (Sire & Pestaña x Zorba), Adal Yatabeh (Sire & Moreda x Garbo) and Adal Comedia (Ataturk & Adal Vitamina x Quirinal).
In more recent years, and as endurance races begun to develop in Spain, Manás de la Hoz has taken part in various national and international contests where many of our horses and products have excel. For instance, Adal Virule (Zangano & La Jarda x Garbo) was exported to Uruguay to become one of the most important Endurance stallions in that part of the world and internationally. Others have also been qualified by the genetics research group MERAGEM at the University of Cordoba as breeding improvers for cross country eventing such as Adal Nirvana (Tidjani & Adal Comedia x Ataturk) or Adal Nostalgia (Sire & Salesa x Ataturk).
Nowadays, Manás de a Hoz remains focussed in being a reference in Arabian Horses sport bloodlines. We have continued with the selection of stallions based on their sport capabilities and attitude. Adal Timbaal (Salaa El Dine & Adal Karina x Ataturk) is a Golden Cross horse with proven sports capabilities and Adal Eclipse (Diament du Rolon & Adal Karina x Ataturk) is a grandson of the famous Persik, champion at Florac, who is now starting his breeding career.